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Selling Cloud-based Virtual Desktops: A Reality Check

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Ideas are cheap, the ability to execute is priceless. Nowhere else in technology is this more apparent than in the delivery of virtual desktops. Why you ask? Because virtual desktops put DaaS providers, their partners, and clients internal IT, directly in the crosshairs of the end users and their expectations. The margin for error is razor thin. If the end user cannot easily access their virtual desktop and work from their preferred device — the best laid plans, and cost benefits for leveraging virtualization at the desktop level are meaningless.

Implementing Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is not an easy endeavor. Many CIO’s and IT staff have been “restructured”, due to costly mistakes. There are big rewards for those who can successfully deliver DaaS and VDI offerings to the market. And as with anything worth doing there are going to be challenges and risks, especially for those looking for a simple transaction.

So how do you sell DaaS? How do you position virtual desktops to those skeptics, who doubt you can deliver when so many others have failed?

Prove it, by taking these initial steps:

  • Partnering with a Service Provider who can deliver a try & buy experience for your customers — a complimentary DaaS trial or a low-cost proof of concept — that integrates Cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure with the customers’ existing production and business critical applications.
  • Understanding and communicating that there are multiple ways to deliver virtual desktops — cloud-based, on-premise or a combination of both.
  • Listening to the customer requirements and determining if they need a full desktop experience or are they really looking for a secure way to deliver corporate applications to their mobile workforce.
  • Evaluating the customers’ environment, prior to making recommendations on a solution. Because anyone who has tried VDI, knows that the experience is only as good as the network it is built on. Talk with your clients about making the upfront investment to evaluate their network readiness and analyze which applications can be virtualized, by leveraging complimentary Assessment offerings from Service Providers, such as Quest’s Network Health Assessment and Quest’s Virtualization Assessment .

There are several variables to consider, when positioning VDI or DaaS. Building a confident reliable DaaS practice depends on your commitment to qualify, evaluate, demonstrate capability, and execute on the customers’ requirements.

As the Quest Technology Partner community is learning, the value is not in a Service Providers pre-packaged solutions. The value is the Service Providers ability to customize the solution to meet the requirements of both IT and end users. This translates to real business value for your customers and real revenues for you.

Meet the Author
Adam Burke is Quest's Vice President of Sales and Partnerships.
Contact Quest Today  ˄
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